Our inappropriate culture

There is a whole debate about individualism. About how we give up parts of ourselves to fit in to the group.

See Dave Pollards Blog

This thing about adapting to the group is of course about survival - the group needs to function as a whole to survive. The best example in the mammal world are killer whales. they have developed "cultures" to be able to live where they do eg some living off seals, some eating small fishes, some hunting tuna. In these cases - playfulness adn experimentation, communication and group learning are all at the base of this culture development. so you could say that the difference, the play, the experimentation is important to learn new things - like when whales learned to follow fishing boats (equipped with sonar and after their food) and get there first. On the other hand learnign to act like a group is essential for survival.

In Brave new world and Brave new world revisited Aldous Huxley says the development of man moving to cities, being surrounded by a vast interconnecting system of technical infrastructure, was driving a development, albeit coming from the good purpose of ORDER, to turn people into insects Insects all act in exactly the same way and if they do not they get killed by the others. He sees civilisation as a giant termite stack of unhappy people.

So I agree with you Dave, it IS an important subject - it is not oil peaking or community gardens that will see manking through the next decade but development of a culture appropriate to

• the earth we live on
• our bodies in terms of organisms
• the reason we are here

Think out of the box my fanny

I saw this advert ”think outside of the box”. This company were selling a car.
As a champion of sustainability my first reaction was ”If that is the best they can do when they think out of the box – come up with a CAR- god help us all” and ”If that is what they want consumers to do, if thinking out of the box is buying a CAR there really is no hope for this oil addicted society”

Think outside of the box – buy a CAR – Jesus - I am on the wrong planet.

O yeah and while I’m railing off – SAABs adverts in Stockholm ”If Saab had built this escalator is would do 200 km/hr. ” Jesus H Christ that would mean very few could afford it, it would kill quite a few a year and be responsible for a large amount of global warming. And the ad was place by the stairs.

Where is sustainable planet thinking? Is this a last desperate attempt by the oil based industries to get us to part with our money so they can carry on their conservative ways?

See Garden_Girl on Google video

A combination of well-kown technologies with a recent invention of sustainable, urban self sufficiency with permaculture. These videos are highly instructive and inspiring. Go garden Girl!